


The SUPER SECRET Radio Host Confab

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Little Towns in the Desert [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, more towns than just NV and DB
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-07
Updated: 2013-09-07
Packaged: 2017-12-25 22:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/958374
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kevin has a theory, and asks to meet up with Cecil in another nearby town to run it by him.<br/>Which is when they meet Cecily, THAT town's local radio host.<br/>Cecily introduces them to Evelyn, Evelyn calls in Lawrence, and Lawrence politely invites Cam (because he's new and Lawrence is a decent guy).<br/>Which is about when the theory expands from "Night Vale and Desert Bluffs are like funhouse mirror reflections of each other" to "this was probably intentional and it's fucking creepy (especially Lawrence)."</p>
<p>[This 'verse is based on a headcanon that NV and DB aren't the only towns like them along their little stretch of Route 800. The whole thing's explained a little better in the author's note, I swear. It's cool.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	The SUPER SECRET Radio Host Confab

**Author's Note:**

> I was talking to one of my friends a few days ago and ended up developing a headcanon that here are a clump of towns a few miles apart in the middle of the desert that are all just similar enough to give you that creeping discomfort in the back of your awareness, but with some major difference or other so they're not just clones. Night Vale and Desert Bluffs included.  
> And that is why I have written this mere days after swearing that I would take some time off of writing NV fic.

_Cecil,_

_We haven't met – at least, I don't think we've met – but I have something strange to ask of you. But I'll get back to that in a moment. Recently Desert Bluffs had a sandstorm with some interesting consequences (people were reporting to us that they were seeing and interacting with doubles of themselves! Can you believe it?), which I've heard passed over Night Vale as well. I had a strange experience myself, although I didn't go outside during the storm. A portal opened in my booth, which took me to what I now believe to have been_ your _booth. You weren't there, though, so I can't be certain. Do you keep a photo of yourself on your desk? As a reminder that you exist, that you are real, I assume? That's why I keep one. Anyway, if the photo that I saw was you, we look rather alike. Almost identical, even. And now for the request: I'd like to meet. We can go to Pine Cliff, somewhere neutral. My show runs in the evenings, so it will have to be a morning meeting, but I think it's worthwhile._

_See you soon!_

_Kevin_

 

Kevin and Cecil sat across from each other in the midst of a silence that was walking the fine line between stunned and angry. They were theoretically enjoying a nice, companionable coffee at the Pine Cliff coffee shop. In reality, it was more glaring at each other in silence and occasionally sipping their now-room temperature beverages.

“Woah, it's like invasion of the clones, I wasn't expecting that,” a female voice said from behind Cecil. Cecil turned around and found that the voice belonged to a woman who looked – well, rather like Kevin, to be honest, and that was kind of weird. “When I heard that the radio hosts from Night Vale and Desert Bluffs were hanging around, I just _had_ to come and see.”

“Who exactly are you?” Cecil asked, perhaps a bit more rudely than he usually would have, but _Kevin_.

“Name's Cecily,” she replied, holding out a hand. “I do the evening radio show here in Pine Cliff.”

Cecil stared at her, shocked. Kevin started laughing like it was the funniest thing he'd ever heard.

“What am I missing here?” Cecily asked.

“I'm Cecil, from Night Vale Community Radio,” said Cecil.

“ _Oh_ ,” said Cecily. “And who's that make you then?” She nodded to Kevin.

“Kevin, Desert Bluffs,” Kevin answered, finally regaining some control.

“Kevin? That sounds suspiciously like Evelyn,” replied Cecily.

“So?” Kevin and Cecil responded in unison.

“ _So_ , Evelyn's the name of my counterpart in Clear Hedge,” Cecily explained. “We've never met, but I'm sure she's lovely.”

“Lovely? Oh, you must be the _him_ of that relationship,” said Cecil, gesturing vaguely toward Kevin.

“Uh, thanks?” Cecily said. “You know, I could email her. See if she wants to meet up, like you two did! We could have a local radio host party!”

“That sounds like an excellent idea, doesn't it, Cecil?” replied Kevin.

Cecil weighed the pros and cons – more time stuck with Kevin, possibility of meeting someone who he had a sneaking suspicion was essentially a female version of _himself_... “Yes, it does.”

–

Cecily emailed Evelyn, who hated both Cecily and Pine Cliff on principle but liked the idea of meeting Cecil and Kevin.

Evelyn emailed Lawrence, the community radio host from that weird town down the road called Placeville, because she figured if the others were meeting up they should invite everyone.

Lawrence emailed the new radio host from Grand Meadow, Cam, because the others had forgotten about him and Lawrence thought that they really should try to be welcoming (because Lawrence was a decent person like that).

–

The “party” was held in one of the conference rooms in the Abandoned Mine Shaft outside of Night Vale (on hearing about the plans, World Government had stepped in and required that the meeting not take place in any of the actual towns).

By the time that Cam showed up (an hour late, he'd gotten lost because he still wasn't used to... anything), the others were deep into comparing notes on their respective towns.

Cecil was starting to think that they were just living in slightly different versions of the same town, like somebody had made a bunch of copies with a broken Xerox machine.

Cecily reported a town that was, according to Kevin, just like Desert Bluffs, only not. Everyone in town had a corresponding citizen in the other town of a different gender.

Evelyn's home town had the same skewed similarities to Night Vale as Cecily's had to Desert Bluffs.

Lawrence's town was... weird. It was set up like the others, but had no hooded figures, had never been passed over by the Glow Cloud, didn't even get that sandstorm with the doubles a few months back. Normal things that everyone else had. You know.

And Cam was new.

“Sorry I'm late, guys, I got lost. Who'd have thought that a mine shaft in the middle of the desert would be so hard to find, right?”

“Who are you again?” Evelyn replied.

“Cameron. Cam, I mean,” answered Cam, looking nervous. “From Grand Meadow. Which, you know, is kind of a weird name for a town in the desert. I've only been here a year or so, I'm still getting the hang of things.”

“And you're the radio host there?” Cecil prompted.

“Well, yeah,” Cam said. “I was visiting the station a few days after I moved to town because I was planning to apply for a behind-the-scenes job and the old host disappeared in the middle of a show and they made me take over. Local scientist has a thing for my voice, so I got stuck with the job. He has a _lot_ of influence over the town, especially considering that he does a remarkably small amount of science for someone who calls himself a scientist. Not that I'm complaining. He's cute.”

From there, the afternoon deteriorated into gushing over various scientists (they all seemed to have one).

“Dina's been studying this clock tower that only exists on thursdays and saturday mornings, but she doesn't get much time to, because of the nonexistence,” Evelyn shared.

Cecil nodded. “Carlos and his team have been working on a house like that. Only the house isn't _ever_ real. It just looks like it is.”

“And you guys just take that in stride? It's all normal for you?” Lawrence asked.

Cecily shrugged. “It isn't for you?”

Cam shook his head. “I'm supposed to report on all this weird stuff like it's nothing, but, um, Grand Meadow's _weird_. And none of the science that Javier tells me about really makes sense. I just kind of go along with the whole thing.”

“That's because it _is_ nothing,” Cecil said, confused. “But have you been listening to Lawrence's stories? Now _that's_ a weird little town.”

It wasn't long after that that Kevin noticed the time and everyone scrambled to get back to their respective radio stations in time to open their shows.

–

“Have fun at your super secret party, Cecil?” Carlos asked when Cecil got home.

“It was... interesting. I still don't like that Kevin guy, though,” answered Cecil. “You might want to meet up with the other scientists sometime.”

“I'll keep that in mind.”


End file.
